The comments Jim made about Linux never changing and always following standards might be the dumbest thing I've heard on this forum in awhile. However, any time you mention the word Linux the fanboys rise from their parent's basement and start spouting the gospel.

Excuse me. I think you're putting words into my mouth, as I don't recall claiming that Linux never changes.

I believe it was a misconstrued recital of my statement that I know of no hardware which used to be supported by Linux and now isn't. That obviously has no implications of lack of change nor of always following standards - mostly because most standards are incomplete, broken or not followed by others and as such require adaption to be worked with.

[snip nice summary of SMB issues]

I've seen you make derogatory comments about moves to Linux in the past (even pointing out that making sure hardware is compatible was "beneath your paygrade"

What made me realize he has no idea what he's on about is the complete absence of understanding of the differences between Debian and Ubuntu philosophies and kernel releases. Conflating them in that manner instantly betrays a complete lack of comprehension of any issues he's speaking about. Complete.

I "bit my tongue" when I saw those kinds of comments in previous threads.

I did as well. Some people have ideas about what I'll comment on, which I leave to their imaginations, but I really see no point in just going in for a fight. I'm hesitant to comment on weapons grade ignorance wielded in such a clumsy manner on a narrow subject as there is nearly no-one who will find the experience learning. It's different when someone spouts off on something people often ask about, and the chances of misleading impressionable new learners is great.

Now.. I haven't been actively involved in IT for around 10 years now

Despite this you have a handle on the issues involved. A good, reasoned post.

Where I disagree is photo editing. Adobe PS / LR, etc., are the standards, and if you don't like this get a job where you can afford them. Linux can't run these native, and until Linux can you should choose your OS based on what you do, not what a bunch of Linux geeks tell you to do.

And here is another lack of clue; big movie studios run Photoshop on Linux. Natively. No, Wine is not an emulator, it's as native as running on Windows is.

Of course, there are may other choices for image management and editing (may of which have native apps for Linux).

And there are choices which are only available on Linux, or run best on Linux, which are used by those requiring heavy graphics processing capability. Specialized tools, which Linux excels at - and unlike the specialized tools requiring XP, Linux won't leave them behind. Unless they rely on a stable kernel ABI, in which case the development managers for the application should be fired and the application rebuilt properly.

If you want to pay Adobe for Photoshop because you really need something it provides that you wouldn't have in the many Linux Imaging Editing apps that are available now, more power to you. As for me, no thanks.